UNION, NJ — It’s no rumor that the Vauxhall Vinyl Music Club is the place to be!
Once a month, on a Saturday, music aficionados get together to listen to select albums in their entirety on a portable Victrola. The club is presented in collaboration with two diehard music fans: Vauxhall Branch Manager Gabriel Ramos and Union resident Paul Reitz, who worked with Sony for more than 20 years. Ramos and Reitz go into depth on the making of the album and notable tracks. There is also audience participation to share thoughts and ask questions.
Ramos calls the club “informal and engaging.” He said, “A fun club experience. Meet people with similar interests and expose yourself to different types of music.”
This month’s featured album was “Rumours,” by Fleetwood Mac. It’s the 11th studio album by the British and American rock band. The album was recorded with the intention of making a pop album that would expand on the success of the 1975 self-titled “Fleetwood Mac.”
“Rumours” was released on Feb. 4, 1977, by Warner Bros. Records. The recording sessions took place as the band members dealt with breakups and struggled with heavy drug use – shaping the album’s direction and lyrics.
In 1978, “Rumours” won “Album of the Year” at the Grammy Awards.
“All songs are personal,” said Reitz.
Ramos added that “Rumours” was created with severe emotional turmoil, with band members separating or divorcing. “Narcotic excess sessions, drug use, especially cocaine. Songs built on personal experience and refined through intense collaboration.”
Prior to playing the album, Ramos and Reitz showed vintage video footage of Fleetwood Mac songstress Stevie Nicks speaking about “Rumours.”
In the video, Nicks said, “I think it’s a very good album. It has a lot of class. The fact that there are three writers lends variety.” In addition to Nicks, Fleetwood Mac consists of Lindsey Buckingham on guitar, vocals, and percussion on “Second Hand News” and “You Make Loving Fun”; Christine McVie on keyboards, synthesizer, vocals and vibraphone on “Dreams”; John McVie on bass; and Mick Fleetwood on drums, percussion, and electric harpsichord on “Gold Dust Woman.”
Four singles from the album all reached the top 10 of the US Billboard Hot 100, with “Dreams” reaching No. 1. In the video footage, Nicks said that “Dreams” was written in the midst of her break-up with Buckingham.
Ramos introduced the song “Never Going Back Again,” written by Buckingham, as “complex guitar playing and simple lyrics.”
“Don’t Stop,” which also reached the Top 10, became famous to another generation when Bill Clinton adopted it as the theme song for his 1992 U.S. presidential campaign.
Reitz said that hit “Go Your Own Way” was Buckingham’s answer to Nicks’ “Dreams.” And he explained that “The Chain,” which begins Side B, is made up of parts of three different songs that Buckingham put together to make one.
Ramos said it was “One of their best-known songs, written in a time when band members were not on talking terms.”
The fourth single, “You Make Loving Fun,” Ramos called “a love song with a more optimistic tone than most songs on the album.” He said, “It depicts Christine McVie moving on from past troubles, into life with a new lover.”
But her song “Oh Daddy” was referred to as “the saddest song on the album” by Reitz.
Ramos called “Gold Dust Woman,” written by Nicks, “a fusion of love-loss devastation and coping with an excess of drugs.”
Nicks’ song “Silver Springs” has been included on some reissues of “Rumours.” But at the time, it was deemed too long and too heavy for an already drama-filled album.
Reitz said that, as of February 2023, “Rumours” has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide. He said, “To this day, it’s one of Spotify’s most-streamed albums.”
In video footage of Lindsey Buckingham speaking about “Rumours,” he said that much of the album’s appeal went beyond the music itself. He said, “We were five people – Stevie and I, a couple for a long time; John and Christine married – broke up, divorced. When there’s pain involved, disappointment, heartache, we didn’t have the luxury to let the dust settle. Three writers. Stevie writing dialogues to me. I was writing to her. Christine was writing to John. People were able to invest in us as people. Everyone knew the subject matter. We were living a soap opera perhaps. I never went to rehab. I can’t speak for other people. I was very grounded in the process.”
Lynn Stradford, of Union, said she finds the music of Fleetwood Mac relaxing. “I’ve always known the music,” she said. “I have friends who saw them last time they were all together. I wish I had the opportunity.”
Her favorite Fleetwood Mac song is “You Make Loving Fun.”
At the end of the program, Ramos let attendees know that the library had several biographies on Fleetwood Mac that could be borrowed with a library card.
The next Vauxhall Vinyl Music Club will be on Saturday, April 25, at 1 p.m., and will be featuring the album “Kind of Blue,” by Miles Davis.
To learn more about Vauxhall Library, visit: https://uplnj.org/hours-and-locations/vauxhall-branch/.
Photos by Maryanne Christiano-Mistretta
